The wedding party’s either over or just getting started in Matthew Lopez’s comedy “Zoey’s Perfect Wedding” at the Denver Center. (AdamsVisCom, provided by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts)

One thing we can guess from the title of Matthew Lopez’s comedy “Zoey’s Perfect Wedding,” at the Denver Center’s Space Theatre through Feb. 25: The nuptials aren’t likely to be perfect. Or at least not in the ways the bride has being dreaming of since she was a girl.

For all we know, the actual “I do’s” between Zoey and Patrick were flawless. The play begins with the bride’s closest college friends slowly finding their way to a table way back in the hotel ballroom for the reception. They kvetch about their seats. But, hey, it’s near the least visited bar. Tequila shots and shots and … shots anyone? Liquor-fueled, regrettable — necessary? — things will be said.

Rachel — a well-regarded wedding planner in New York City, played by Mallory Portnoy — delivers the kind of toast sure to kneecap any festive gathering. Her toast derides weddings and tries clumsily, angrily and, to the dismay of her hubby, Charlie (Jeff Biehl), to celebrate the precious and elusive parts of marriage. Matching Rachel, shot for shot, shock for shock is gay buddy Sammy (Grayson DeJesus, playing it suave and cocky).

Over the course of the evening, everyone’s veneer will crack. Some revelations charm. None of them will come as much of a surprise to fans of pop-culture weddings. “Zoey” has some tart-funny dialog but the cleverness seldom stretches beyond sit-com ease. Given Lopez’s previous work, this is a letdown.

Ace wedding planner Rachel (Mallory Portnoy) gives an unplanned meltdown of a wedding toast in “Zoey’s Perfect Wedding,” at the Space Theatre. (AdamsVisCom, provided by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts)

Four years ago, Denver got a bracing dose of the playwright’s gifts when within weeks of each other, “The Whipping Man” and “The Legend of Georgia McBride” opened at Curious and the Denver Center, respectively. One told the story of two newly freed slaves and the son of their Jewish owner. “Georgia” introduced us to a straight Elvis impersonator who finds his true artistic self when he switches to drag. They couldn’t be more different: “Zoey,” too, hints at the breadth of Lopez’s interests.

In a way, this snappy production directed by Mike Donahue (who helmed “Georgia McBride”), starts with a deejay (Nick Ducassi) spinning tunes as the audience enters the theater. He chats up those gathered as if they’re guests. His banter hints at the year: 2008. “Sounds like a hit,” he says of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).” When he name-checks Lin-Manuel Miranda, it’s not (wink) because of “Hamilton” but due to the playwright’s earlier musical, “In the Heights.” Still, one of his best lines is a joke at the expense of theater’s graying audience (though the opening-night crowd nudged the demographics younger).

Alas, there’s not nearly enough dancing at this wedding (the music stops being good when the play starts), but there’s a great deal of fluid movement as the characters arrive. A favorite example of witty, controlled motion comes as Zoey (Nija Okoro) furiously rails against her misfortune. She has a Chinese take-out food carton in her hand — don’t ask. With each rant, she splashes noodles about the stage.

Like the husband in Clare Boothe Luce’s “The Women,” the bridegroom never appears, although we do hear a fair amount about Patrick’s folks and the interfaith clash of families. He hails from Arkansas evangelicals. Zoey’s family is Jewish.

Set designer Dane Laffrey makes fine use of the in-the-round contours of the newly renovated Space Theatre. The deejay has his gear on one side of the ballroom. The friends’ table rotates slowly in the middle of the stage. In the scene that introduces Zoey, the floor gives way to a bathroom where the bride is wiping away tears.

“Zoey” features actors new to the Denver Center, and the ensemble hits the fine notes of friendship, some painful, some playful. The worry here is that Lopez’s greatest contribution to this mostly borrowed, somewhat blue affair is Sammy’s ribald defense of his and boyfriend Jordan’s “open” relationship. Prepare yourself for some R-rated badinage. Like Patrick, Jordan doesn’t make an appearance. But Rachel paints a dreamy, utterly successful fella who shouldn’t be cheated on.

At the time of Zoey’s wedding, the economy is slippery-sloping. There’s a reason the reception is being held at a Marriott in downtown Brooklyn. A reason Zoey contracted her utterly green cousin Missy (Kristin Villanueva) to “plan” her wedding. A reason, too, Charlie is returning to his forsaken rocker desires. This braiding of disappointments — romantic and economic — hints at what might have been. Lopez is on to something. “Zoey’s Wedding” just doesn’t get there before the lights come up on the wedding.

Lisa Kennedy's film critic job returned her to the town she grew up in after 20 years of living elsewhere: mostly in New York City. During the time she's been back, she was voted into the National Society of Film Critics, a first for a Colorado reviewer.